A gay couple kiss during a march on International Day Against Homophobia at the Gabriela Mistral park in Quito, Ecuador, Thursday, May 17, 2012.

An activist who got into a twitter fight with the president of Ecuador about same-sex marriage launched a direct attack on the country's ban on same-sex marriage Monday.

Pamela Troya and her partner, Gabriela Correa, submitted an application to marry to a civil registrar in the capital of Quito. Their application is expected to be rejected, since Ecuador's constitution explicitly bans same-sex marriages. This will then enable them to launch a legal challenge to the marriage ban.

Troya, who heads the group Igualdad de Derechos ¡Ya! [Equal Rights Now!] got into a twitter skirmish with Ecuador's leftist President Rafael Correa over same-sex marriage.

When Correa announced in May that he opposed same-sex marriage, Troya tweeted, "What a shame that you make a show of your prejudices that only reinforce discrimination that exists for #LGBTI. This is your revolution?"

Troya and her partner timed their new push for marriage inequality to coincide with the first legal same-sex marriages being performed in Uruguay under a law passed this spring.

Silvia Buendía, a spokesperson for the Red LGBTI (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans, and Intersex Network), said that Ecuadorian activists were optimistic about this new campaign because Argentina and Brazil have also legalized same-sex marriages in the past few years.

"Every month there is a new country that moves marriage equality forward," Buendía said.

Dolores Ochoa / AP

A gay couple kiss during a march on International Day Against Homophobia at the Gabriela Mistral park in Quito, Ecuador, Thursday, May 17, 2012.